Sunday Vapen anxiously behind the glass of his private cupboard in the Mendizorza Stadium of Alaves on Sunday, saw Carlo Ancelotti delivered.
It could be because he was forbidden and if unable to influence the procedure, because his side was holding a 1-0 lead with 10 men after Kylian Mbappe was sent. But it could also have been because his grip on the work of Real Madrid is released.
He knows that Xabi Alonso is waiting on Wednesday evening in the Wings and Champions League output by Arsenal, along with a failure to catch Barcelona in La Liga – they are four points clearly with seven games to play – will mean Madrid coaches this summer.
The Italian has struggled throughout the season with the mystery of a top -heavy, sad unbalanced team and is not closer to coming up with the answer, hours for the biggest game of the season.
The famous history of the Epic comebacks team in this competition, and the possibility that Mbappe and Vinicius JR will click in a way that they have not really done the entire season are branches for the 64-year-old to hold.
“We had a very bad half hour and just couldn't respond,” said Ancelotti after the first stage. “We trusted individuals who did something, we were not compact, we have not been the entire season.”
He started to say aloud what he has been thinking since the summer, when Toni Kroos was not replaced and he was instructed to place the fierce talents of Vinicius and Mbappe, huge egos and preference for playing in the same part of the field, without a sufficiently robust midfield or defense behind them.
Mbappe had his teammates disappointed in the weekend. His violent outages could have breaked the leg of Antonio Blanco and the resulting red card had Madrid struggled, just when they needed an easy afternoon.
They won the game, with their first clean sheet in ten games. At the end, Antonio Rudiger could be seen to “Remontada!” To scream ('comeback') while greeting Madrid's traveling support.
They stopped banners with the same word. It is all that they have talked about since the Emirates debacle.
With a little more detachment and reasoning, television expert and former Barcelona player Gerard Lopez said on Sunday: “I don't see them doing it, just because of the way they play.”
Ancelotti thinks about various changes in his first leg line-up. He has his best defending midfielder Aurelien Tchouameni back from the suspension and could move Fede Valverde next to him to midfield in the absence of Eduardo Camavinga, who was banned after his late red card at the Emirates.
Valverde, the dynamic Uruguayan, has a much greater influence from the center of the field, although it means that a converted winger and not convincing defender Lucas Vazquez must immediately start back.
The alternative is to start former Arsenal midfielder Dani Ceballos, who is back after a six-week resignation.
He was closest to Ancelotti found the deceased duckweed before his hamstring injury. The red card from Mbappe on Sunday has ruined the plans to give it for half an hour.
Whatever side Ancelotti chooses, the 'Four Fantastics' do not look negotiable. Mbappe, Vinicius, Rodrygo and Jude Bellingham have scored 80 goals between them, but Bellingham aside, the work ethics is often striking because of its absence and against better Madrid teams are therefore overwhelmed.
Barcelona has trounced them twice (5-2 in the Spanish Super Cup final and 4-0 in La Liga). Milan and Liverpool have also defeated them. Of their really big competitions, only Manchester City did not have the measure of the Ancelotti team.
A recent poll in the Spain Diario, who had 53 percent of the 14,000 that blamed 'bad planning' for the potentially enormously overwhelming season. The players were faulted by 30 percent and only 17 percent pointed to the coach.
But Ancelotti will not save that if they go out on Wednesday evening, although Real is hunger for the epic power.
Six of the last 11 champion competitions were won by the Spanish club and those triumphs have been full with various glorious rebellions. “If a team is capable of, it's this,” said Vazquez.
“Everything can happen at the Bernabeu,” Bellingham added.
Supporters will greet the team bus with the traditional wall of noise and fog of torches, but for Madrid to cancel the first stage, they need a performance that they have not managed all season and for Arsenal to fold.
Ancelotti, who will exchange his vape for his handful of chewing gum back on the touchline, has won this competition more than anyone else and knows that his team has a chance, despite the opportunities.
But he also knows that Madrid did not score Champions League goal for 245 minutes and has admitted 11 in their last five games.
They also raised only 15 points from a possible 24 in the competition stage and Vinicius has not scored in Europe since January, and also do not pass his husband in the Emirates once.
The historical tendency of the club to the extraordinary says they can do it. Logic says that they and their coach are on their way outside.
Asked for his own state of mind that entered the game, Ancelotti replied: 'This is not my first match of this kind in this competition. I hope it won't be my last. '
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